Cultural Encounters in Arvind Adiga’s The White Tiger

  • Dr Jyoti Sharma
Keywords: online English research journal, research papers publisher, UGC approved journal, Dr Jyoti Sharma, Cultural Encounters in Arvind Adiga’s The White Tiger

Abstract

The White Tiger, Booker prize winning novel of 2008, is a portrayal of a society in flux, where various sections of the social order find themselves in unique and complex cultural encounters. Cross-cultural encounters generally refer to the encounters between people of different nations, religions or global regions. However, Arvind Adiga’s novel has expressed this cultural encounter within a single nation- India. India, with its diversity is not just one nation culturally; it has so many diverse cultures that, within a nation there are various cultural encounters. In the race towards progress where India is surging ahead economically, there is a part of India that has been left behind. These “have-nots” find themselves in conflict with the privileged classes, and the ensuing encounter poses numerous questions for the reader of The White Tiger.

Cultural encounters challenge ideas about cultural homogeneity and the unchanging nature of traditions and society. Any cultural encounter will automatically pose questions about identity. In The White Tiger, the novelist portrays Indian society that is transforming due to western influence and the rural India that is not able to cope with this change, finds itself trapped, suffocated, neglected and at the verge of revolt. Balram, the downtrodden protagonist of the novel not only revolts as a result of this cultural encounter, but manages to improve his fate by becoming an entrepreneur defying all social and economic conventions of India. The paper analyses various dimensions of cultural encounters in the novel The White Tiger.

Keywords: Cultural encounter, social flux, identity, western influence.

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Author Biography

Dr Jyoti Sharma

Dr. Jyoti Sharma (Ph. D.) is currently working as Associate Professor of Department of English, Faculty of Media Studies and Humanities, Manav Rachna International Institute of Research & Studies (MRIIRS) Faridabad.

Dr. Jyoti has a teaching experience of more than 15 years. She has published more than 30 research papers in National and International journals. She has also presented 12 papers at national conferences sponsored by UGC and 5 papers in international conferences. She has authored a book titled Confessional Poetry of Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton.  Her areas of Interest are poetry, Diaspora literature, Post Colonial literature and feminist writings. 

References

1. Adiga, Aravind. The White Tiger. New Delhi: Harper Collins. 2008. Print.
2. S Shenoy, Anupama. “Balram Halwai and the White Tiger: Aravind Adiga’s tribute to the Aspirational Indian of Present Times”, IJELLH, vol IV Issue X, October 2017.
3. Deswal, Prateek. A Critical Analysis of Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger: A Socio-Political Perspective, Language in India. ISSN 1930-2940 Vol. 14:12 December 2014.
4. Singh, Krishna. “Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger: The Voice of the Underclass- A postcolonial Dialectics.” Journal of Literature, Culture and Media Studies. Vol-1 No. 2, July-Dec 2009. Print.
5. Walmiki, Shashikala. “Arvind Adiga’s The White Tiger: A Portrait of Modern India.” Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies Volume 2, Issue 3, March 2014.
Published
2019-05-05
How to Cite
Sharma, D. J. “Cultural Encounters in Arvind Adiga’s The White Tiger”. Contemporary Literary Review India, Vol. 6, no. 2, May 2019, pp. 66-75, https://literaryjournal.in/index.php/clri/article/view/388.
Section
Research Papers